The Magical Bond Between Two Hearts
by Lazorrock
Summary: Lucy is a magical girl who came from a game called Shining Magic. She is exiled from her game because of a dark evil that went and took over her game. Now 9 years later she is grown up and must try to find a way back home before her game becomes completely eliminated. Along the way she meets a bad guy named Ralph, and soon an adventure begins...
1. Prologue: Lucy's Adventure Begins

**A/N**: Hello. I'm sort of new to this fan fiction writing (actually I'm a total novice to it), but I thought I would give it a try. About one year ago, I saw a fantastic Disney movie named Wreck-It-Ralph. I fell in love with this movie after I saw it for the first time. Since then, I thought of a story to take place after the events of the movie. I contemplated in my mind the perfect story, and I finally came up with one. It waited patiently in the back of my mind to be written, and now after a year, I finally plucked up the courage to write it.

So I hope you enjoy the prologue, and please tell me what you think about it. I would love some feedback to how I did, and maybe how I can improve.

**Disclaimer**: All copyrighted characters from Wreck-It-Ralph belong to Disney.

The Magical Bond between Two Hearts: A Wreck-It-Ralph Fan Fiction

Prologue: Lucy's Adventure Begins

There was always something special about her. Whether it is her magical powers or her kindness to others, Lucy was someone to count on as a friend. The sad part about her was that she was an outcast ever since her game was plugged in at Litwak's Family Fun Center and Arcade. When her game, _Shining Magic_, was plugged in, gamers came from every nearby neighborhood to play it. It was almost as popular as the first games first plugged into Litwak's Arcade.

The game _Shining Magic_, was an adventure game where the gamer controls the characters. The goal of the game was to push back the forces of evil and darkness from the kingdom of Maic using powerful magic used for good. The only ones who can recieve this magic are the children who are defined special in the eyes of the light. One of these children was in fact Lucy.

As a 12 year old child Lucy was indeed different from the rest of her fellow players. When the game was plugged in, all of the characters were there, except for one. Lucy was the last child to appear in the game, when in fact she was supposed to appear when the game was plugged in. Her powers were also as strange as the late appearance: Lucy had the power of Light. The rest of the children thought she was a freak as soon as she was born. They would scold and laugh at her for being so different.

"Look! There goes the little freak!"

"Hey Lucy! Why don't you bring life to this dead leaf!"

"She'll never fit in, she's just too different from us!"

"It's not my fault for being so different." She would always reply, yet no one listened.

The only person that would stick around Lucy was her twin sister named Daisy. At least, that's what Lucy thought of Daisy as. Daisy was the most popular player in _Shining Magic_, and the strongest of them all. She had the power to control the element of Water, Wind, and Fire. But unlike the other children, 13 year old Daisy had ideas of her own. She explored in places no other child has gone before, and wished for something more than herself.

When Lucy was born, she did not scold and make fun of her like the rest of the children. Instead, she would treat her as if she was her own sister. They became best friends as soon as they saw each other. Every night when the arcade closes, Daisy would run off with Lucy and have lots of adventures outside their kingdom.

Lucy would always ask each time: "Where are we going Daisy?"

"You'll see." Daisy would always reply.

The adventures they went on ranged from finding The Hidden Nest (a secret hideout for just Lucy and Daisy), to exploring the Ruins of Our Past(a cave with drawings the two girls did not understand), right down to one day exploring the tunnel that lead to Grand Central Station.

"What do you think is beyond that gate Lucy?" Daisy asked, peering into the dark tunnel.

"I don't know," Lucy replied nervously, "But maybe we shouldn't go. It could be dangerous."

"Oh, come on Lucy!" Daisy chortled, "It can't be that bad of a place!"

She grabbed on to Lucy's shoulder. "Think about it…" she whispered, "Millions of other characters just like us right outside our very game, can you imagine it?"  
Lucy looked at her friend, and then stared into the dark tunnel. A tunnel that lead out of her home and into a world full of unknown and doubt. It was forbidden by her kingdom to ever enter through the tunnel. She had never thought of leaving a place that she felt she didn't belong in. All those years of being treated like an outcast by her peers, laughed at for having the only power in her world that no one else had.

"I…." she started, and then sadly sighed.

"What's the matter sis?" asked Daisy.

Lucy looked at her sister. She saw her as the big hope in her whole life, yet Lucy felt she was being distant with her as well as the rest.

"Nothing." She replied.

A smile spread across Daisy's face, so Lucy tried to bear a smile to let her very best friend know that she was alright. She was not happy though, Lucy was very unhappy to be alive. Yet she managed to bring a smile to her sad face. _"Daisy… I wish…."_

"HEY LET'S GO!" Daisy shouted, already running.

Lucy shrugged it off, and ran to catch up with her as they headed back to Maic.  
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"GO, GO!" Daisy shouted.

"I'M GOING!" Lucy shouted back.

Fire and Ice whizzed by their faces as the girls made their way towards the gate that lead out of Maic. As Lucy ran, she looked back to see the destruction that lay behind her. A huge, dark shadowy figure towered above the carnage.

"Keep running!" Daisy yelled.

The shadowy figure turned to look at the little figure of Lucy. She stopped right in her tracks, terrified as the figure made its way closer and closer. Lucy was struck down in fear. It wasn't just a few days before when she was on her last adventure with Daisy to the forbidden tunnel, and now was nearly close to death, her home crumbling around her. Suddenly something pushed her down. She tumbled and rolled down until she stopped, laying face up to the blackened sky. Pain went through her arms and legs as she struggled to get up. Her legs quivered as she stood up. Suddenly swarms of shadows passed by her. They were shapeless, mindless beings of evil that would destroy everything in their paths just to satisfy their hunger. Lucy looked around and saw that she was the only one who made it out of the kingdom.

_"Daisy, where is Daisy?!" _was Lucy's first thought. She turned around and saw a horrible sight. Daisy, Lucy's sister and her only friend in her world…_was gone_. Swallowed up by the darkness that consumed her home. She wanted to run back and try her best to save her, but she knew that her powers were not ready for her yet. She could not as much as knock an opponent down, she could only use a little of her healing powers that she possessed. Frustrated, Lucy was torn between going back and saving Daisy, or running away and hopefully the shadows would not catch her.

Then, she remembered where the forbidden tunnel was. _"What did Daisy say about it? Millions of other characters on the other side?"_ Lucy gasped. _"Maybe they can help me!"_

With this she came up with one solution: all she could do now was _run_…run away from the darkness and into the tunnel to find help. Taking a huge breath, Lucy ran her way up to the dark tunnel. Without hesitation, she kept running until the game _Shining Magic_ was out of sight.

At first the tunnel was so dark that Lucy was unable to see past her hands. She kept going, determined to reach her goal. But the darkness of the tunnel closed in around her. Lucy felt so lost without Daisy to guide her. Unable to keep going, she felt tears come down her eyes and softly, she began to cry. She began to lose hope. But then, she saw something in the dark.

_"What is it?" _she wondered, _"I can't make it out."_

Lucy walked slowly toward it blindly, squinting her eyes to see if she could see it clearer. Suddenly she felt a warm sensation reaching out to her. It seems to reach out to touch the very being of her. She looked back at what used to be her home.

"Daisy…" Lucy sighed sadly. Her eyes began to tear up.

_"No! I can't give up. My sister wouldn't let me." _

Then she saw something that was glowing on her shoulder. The symbol that represented her magical powers glowed a golden light that she had never seen before. Lucy then realized that as long as her magic light is glowing, there is hope. She took a deep breath and then with a confidence strong in her heart, ran towards what was to be the end of the tunnel. Out of nowhere there came a bright light. Shielding her eyes Lucy stumbled out of the tunnel into the doorway that would lead to Grand Central Station. Looking up she saw a bright light bulb in the middle of the ceiling, towering above her.

"Where am I?" Lucy muttered drowsily.

She looked above to find an illuminated sign that read:

**Shining Magic**

**Out of Order: No Trespassing**

"That's my game!" she shouted dazedly, _"But why does it say Out of Order?"_

The light bulb above began to flicker. Lucy began to realize that she was not at home anymore: she was in what seemed to be the real world. Slowly Lucy sank down to the floor, hugging her arms to her knees with tears stinging her eyes.

_"I wish Daisy was here…."_she sadly thought, tears streaming down her face, _"I miss my sister, the citizens of Maic; I even miss the children that always picked on me." _She smiled at the thought, but then shrugged it off.

Now the light bulb was starting to go out. Then something moved from the tunnel behind Lucy. She turned, frightened to think that the shadowy figure she saw before Daisy push her away from it was after her again. A flash of light zipped by, knocking her down. Rubbing her head she sat back up, to find that a beautiful, white dove was staring right into her face.

"WOAH, AHH!" She screamed as the dove fluttered in the air to avoid Lucy's flailing. The dove then landed right on Lucy's shoulder. She tensed up, fearing the dove would peck at her, but the bird simply just sat still on her shoulder. After a while Lucy was able to relax her arms and let the dove stay on her shoulder. Slowly she stood up, being careful not to harm the dove.

_"It seems to be asleep," _she thought, trying not to wake it, _"I wonder…." _

She slowly moved her hand to the dove's head. Just about when she was about to touch it, the dove shot its eyes open. For a moment the two of them stared at each other, with Lucy's hand outstretched to the bird. Then ever so slightly, the dove moved its head to Lucy's outstretched hand. Lucy giggled as she stroked the dove's head to its wings.

"Looks like we're going to be stuck here for a while, huh?" she asked the dove.

The dove shook its feathers in reply. "You probably don't know what I'm talking about, do you?" she said to the dove. The bird looked at her with its big eyes. Lucy slowly sank back down to the floor once again.

"You know, I could use a friend to take care of." She muttered to herself, "What do you think?" she asked, turning to the dove.

"Coo," the dove replied.

Lucy smiled. "It's settled then. I'm going to take care of you. Oh, but what's you're name?"

The dove simply shook its head.

"Well since you don't have a name, I'll name you. I'll call you..." Lucy paused thinking, "...I think I'm going to call you...Sophie. It's the name of the last queen that ruled the kingdom of Maic. What do you think?"

The bird flapped its wings, making Lucy jump. Realizing that the dove was only happy, she giggled in reply as the bird came closer to her. In return Lucy pulled the bird close to give it a warm hug.

"It's settled then." she happily responded. The only thought she had now was to get some sleep. Slowly she closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep; with the dove, Sophie, cuddled up next to her.  
Just at that time, the light bulb above went out completely.

**A/N**: And that's the end of the prologue. Don't worry...I will introduce Ralph and the rest of the group in the next chapter. Please leave a review, I would really love to hear feedback. Until the next chapter!


	2. Chapter 1: The Outcast

**A/N: **And here is Chapter 1! Please leave feedback, I would love to hear how I did.

**Disclaimer**: Do not own rights to Wreck-It Ralph, those rights belong to Disney.

The Magical Bond between Two Hearts  
Chapter 1: The Outcast of Game Central Station

There was a great bustle in Game Central Station that day. It was almost time for what was called "The Biggest Dance Dance Revolution Ever." It wasn't just the usual bustling of the regulars that traveled from portal to portal, almost the whole arcade was in a bustle to sneak a peek or go inside to join the party. It just so happened that on the same day as the anniversary of DDR, it was also the anniversary of the out of order game "Shining Magic." And yet… no one knew about this game for 9 years.  
The only one, who did care, was a mysterious cloaked figure that was in Game Central Station every day. No one really knew much about this person, aside from the rumors that she was exiled from her own game for disobeying the rule of talking to the players, or that she was a ghost of the game Shining Magic, and was out to get revenge for those that treated her poorly. However, she knew that these stories were not true. The girl flipped the hood off of her head, looking curiously at the crowd of people.

"That's strange Sophie…I've never seen this many people at this time of night…" she whispered to her companion, a white dove that had been by her side ever since this girl appeared.

"Coo?" Sophie replied questioningly.

"I know Soph, I'm not sure what's going on either."

She sighed in defeat as she carefully walked over to a bench a few feet away. She sat down, hugging her legs and put her head on top of her knees. For a moment the station seemed so quiet to her. _"I'm all alone."_ Suddenly she gasped, coming back to the scene of the bustling crowd of people. A sudden jolt of pain went through her body, mostly from the left arm hidden within her dark cloak. The girl clamped her right hand to her  
left arm, beads of sweat rolling down her face.

_"Ow…it's hurting more today than usual. But why…."_

The pain in her arm swelled even more as the girl tried to figure out why her arm was suddenly acting up. Slowly, she removed the cloak from her arm, revealing a blackened arm. Looking closer, she could tell there were dark scars and scratches that were there since stepping through the portal to GCS. She did not know how to explain why she got this wound, but in spite of that she was surprised that the wound had not managed to slowly consume her. In the shining light, the blackness on her arm swelled up even worse than it did before. The girl's beaded sweat now increased twice as much. She started to shake at the unbearable pain that she somehow seemed to endure. Sophie noticed the pain in the girl's face and hopped from her shoulder, fluttering in the air to look more closely at the wound.

"Coo! Coo!" The bird cried out.

The girl looked up at her friend, then seeing that the dove was not looking at her, she turned in the direction of where the bird was looking. She realized that Sophie was looking right at a portal entrance. Not the Dance Dance Revolution that was holding one of the biggest parties ever, but the one entrance that she dared not go into. The girl stamped her feet on the floor, making a large THUNK. Slowly she got to her feet and turned to the entrance that read Fix-It-Felix Jr. She looked at Sophie quizzically.

"You want me to go to that game?" she asked.

Sophie fluttered back down on her shoulder, turning to look at the girl's face. She nodded her head once in reply. The girl took a look at her feathery companion, and then back at the Fix-It-Felix Jr. entrance.

"Are you sure…?"

The bird nodded its head once again. She took a real deep breath, and took a step back. Then, something inside her was pulling at her. She realized that this something was making her feet move forward, making her move forward. She could feel her chest heaving with deep breaths, her feet gone heavy with every step she took. Inside she heard voices saying: _"What are you thinking?! You don't even know who is beyond that gate. Why even bother?! They will only encourage your sadness and despair."_

Regardless of those voices, the girl kept moving forward. She had to know what was there. She had to find out why she was pressing forward despite her will to not go. She had to know…_had to_….

She stopped, realizing she was standing right in front of the entrance. She sucked in a gasp, and gulped. There she was, a few steps away from entering the one game she never had been inside, and yet she was hesitating to go in. It was all so confusing to her as if she was just plugged in for the first time. The girl took a few steps away from the entrance.

_"Think…what would my sister do…?"_

Inside the girl's entire being was trying to force her to move, but her feet were firmly planted on the ground, unhinged. Somehow she knew that she must find what is making her feel this way.

_"I need to know… but I'm scared to… what if… what if I wrong the game itself?"_

She could not bear herself to go inside, taking more steps back from the entrance. Slowly her breaths were returning to normal and this force had suddenly dissipated away as if nothing had changed. The girl turned to stare at the DDR entrance, then remembered that there was a party going on. Putting her hood of her cloak back on her head, she moved forward until she reached the front of the entrance. The dove suddenly flew off and away, leaving the girl standing alone at the gate. Finally, moving ever so slowly, she walked through the entrance of DDR.

The party was even more triumphant than the DDR gamers could have imagined. Many characters from so many different games wanted some of the action going on at the anniversary party of Dance Dance Revolution. _Pac-Man, Frogger, Super Mario Bros, Sonic the Hedgehog, Tappers, Street Fighter_, and so many others came to this once-in-a-lifetime party.  
One person that didn't seem thrilled to be here was the wrecking bad guy from Fix-It-Felix Jr. named Wreck-It-Ralph. He towered over everyone as all of the characters waited in line to get into the party.

"This is ridiculous!" Ralph shouted loudly, "Why am I even going to this party with you guys?!"

"You know why, Stinkbrain." said Vanellope, a tiny girl who came from a game called Sugar Rush. She sat atop of Ralph's broad shoulders, looking over the whole crowd that stood waiting in line.

"It seems kind of hopeless doing this kid, you know it won't work." Ralph scowled, glowering at the huge crowd.

"Well I think it is just a great idea, Vanellope!" replied Felix, who Ralph could barely see below from the huge bustling crowd. The only way Ralph could tell he was there was to look where his wife, Sgt. Calhoun from the game Hero's Duty, was standing. Looking at Calhoun, Ralph noticed that she did not seem to be happy to be here either.

_"Vanellope no doubt must have forced her to come along too…typical."_ He quietly assumed.

Suddenly the huge line that was suddenly there before was very quickly moving into the DDR portal. Ralph, struck by surprising shock, almost lost his balance as the crowd moved forward.

"Whoa Ralph, WATCH IT!" Vanellope yelped, waving her hands to gain balance as Ralph tried to steady himself from the pushing and shoving of the cluster of people.

"Sometimes you can be brainless Ralph." Calhoun retorted.

"Now come on hon." Felix sweetly replied, "It's Ralph's first time trying to find a date."

Calhoun gave a huge grunt of resignation, and managed to give Felix a little smile. Ralph rolled his eyes, looking again at the crowd cluster headed inside.

"Well…" he said turning to his friends, "Let's get this over with."

Carefully Ralph made his way through the crowd, with Vanellope sitting safely atop of his shoulders and the Fix-It couple following behind him. The first time that he heard about the party, he was reluctant to even show his face in Game Central Station. But Vanellope had to coax him into it saying that _"you might find someone special there, maybe a new __**'girlfriend'**__."_ Ralph did feel alone lately, after attending the wedding of Fix-It-Felix and Calhoun. He had felt that there was no one for him. Even after saving Sugar Rush from the evil virus that was King Candy (aka Turbo); there were still people that hated him because he was a bad guy.  
Even so, apparently this wasn't stopping Vanellope from trying to help him find someone that she labeled would be "The One." He ruffed out a huge sigh as he walked into the portal that leads to the DDR game. As he got into the train that led to the party, Ralph thought he caught a glimpse of a cloaked hooded figure coming toward the entrance to DDR. Before he could get a closer look, the train lurched suddenly into darkness, the light from Game Central Station disappearing behind him. For a moment Ralph just sat there, looking back unblinking. Then he shook his head and turned to face the nightmare that lay ahead of him at the DDR party.


	3. Chapter 2: The Party

**A/N**: Here is Chapter 2! I hope you guys enjoy this chapter. Please read and review, I would always like helpful feedback.

**Disclaimer**: I do not own the rights to Wreck-It Ralph. The rights belong to Disney.

The Magical Bond between Two Hearts

Chapter 2: The Party

She was always afraid of the dark, ever since she had walked into Game Central. Never did she go into any game with a dark tunnel. Yet as the girl looked into the tunnel that lead to the DDR party, she had the strangest feeling that she herself did not know she had. It was the sense of curiosity, and an unknown feeling welling strongly inside her. It overpowered her fear so much, that somehow she was not taken aback when she walked into the anteroom where the DDR train was, got on it and rode it to the party that lay ahead.

_"I wish Sophie was with me…"_ was all the girl could worry about as the train sped ahead to the entrance of DDR.

As soon as the train stopped, she immediately ran out and knelt down to catch her breath. She was so caught up with her curiosity that she did not realize her fear of the dark. For what seemed like a minute the girl just knelt on the ground breathing heavily. Suddenly she perked her ears to hear muffled music coming from behind the door into DDR. Slowly she rose to her feet, clutching on to her bearings as she stared at the door in front of her. The train long gone now, she had no choice but to go inside.  
The door seemed so far away to her that she thought there was still a long way to go. But once she reached the entrance, it had only taken her a few seconds to reach it. _She knew that if she opened that door, everyone would want her gone and nothing would change the way things are_. Voices rang loud inside the girl's mind, mostly screaming the same thought: _Get out of Here!_ Yet one voice in the back of her mind was saying something that made her open the door into the bright lights of the party…

_What are you waiting for?_  
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"HEY RALPH! Are you in there?! WAKE UP!"

Ralph quickly jerked his head up from the table at the shrill yell of Vanellope's voice.

"I'M UP, I'M UP!" he shouted too loudly.

Looking around he saw that no one was looking (of course the blare of the music drowned out his overpowering voice). _"Whew… no one heard me."_ Ralph sighed with relief, and then faced Vanellope.

"What's the big idea, kid!" he hissed, "I was trying to block out that loud music stinging my ears!"

"Well _sorry_ for waking you up from your nap!" Vanellope snapped back, "But remember that we came here to get you out socializing with people, not catching up on naptime!"

Ralph blew a raspberry to the side. "Come on kid, is anyone here in this room going to talk to me just because I'm trying to find a date?! Plus you may have not yet noticed, I'm a _bad guy_. Bad guys don't get dates with girls."

"Well this bad guy will." Calhoun replied pointing at Ralph, "You'll never know if you will get one unless you _try_."

Ralph opened his mouth in protest, but did not say anything. Calhoun was right; he _had_ to try sooner or later. Putting one of his huge hands under his chin, he scowled quietly as he watched the DDR dancers on the dance floor. He really didn't care about dancing, nor was he really good at it. Once at one of Felix's parties he tried to dance, but his fumbling about almost took down the whole penthouse. Ralph was so embarrassed that he promised himself never to try dancing again. As he looked out now from the very huge table that Ralph and his friends were sitting at, he was starting to think that his promise might be broken. All of his friends, including Felix, were expecting him to at least find one person to talk to tonight, and that might mean going on the dance floor and making a fool of him: _again_.  
At that time, he found himself looking at the entrance, wanting so desperately to get out of this nightmare. To his surprise the door suddenly opened, making him flinch. As soon as Ralph caught his eyes on the person that came through the door, Ralph thought that this night was not going to be as bad as he thought.  
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From the first moment the girl walked through the door the first thing she realized was the blaring lights. She shielded her eyes, squinting in the blinding light as she stepped inside. Once her eyes adjusted, she stared out in awe. In the brightly lit room that was DDR, hundreds of characters were sitting, standing, or dancing on the dance floor. For a minute she just stood there dumbfounded by the scene before her. Then something loud came screaming in her ears. She quickly raised her hands to plug her ears from whatever the noise was. Squeezing her eyes shut, the girl tried to get the loud music out of her head, but it would never go away. Finally, she let herself slowly open her eyes and let her hands fall to her sides.

_"Well, so far so good,"_ she assured herself. _"This isn't too bad…."_

She let her feet walk her down the stairs leading to the DDR floor. She pulled her hood down further as she got closer to other characters enjoying themselves. The girl looked around, stopping herself from going any further.

_"I got a bad feeling about this…"_ she inaudibly whispered.

The girl looked over at the bar to see no one had taken any seats. Her eyes widened, _what luck_. She slowly made her way through the crowd and took a seat right at the little glass bar. Exhausted, she lay her head down on the counter, and for a moment everything seemed fine.

"Hello there, miss outcast."

She knew who that voice belonged to, even with the loud music still ringing in her ears. She did not move.

"Hello Archer," she whispered, "nice to see you again."

"It's not nice to see you though: _Lucy_." The voice of Archer replied coldly.

Fear started to well up inside her, as she sat there. Slowly, Lucy raised her head from the counter and turned.  
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Ever since the hooded figure walked in the party, Ralph sat up straighter than he ever did. And by the looks of his friends gave him, they had noticed his strange behavior as well.

"Well my word," Felix managed to say after one minute of silence, "I've never seen this one here in DDR before. I don't think I've ever seen this person at all."

"You said it, I've been here for more than a newly plugged in game and I've never seen someone like that." Vanellope uttered in awe.

Ralph looked down at his little friend, who became his best friend ever since game jumping into Sugar Rush. There was no doubt that she did not know this hooded person, even though Vanellope knew about all of the characters in the arcade. Looking back up, he noticed that the person made their way down the steps slowly, descending into the crowd of dancing characters below. For a few seconds Ralph lost sight of the person, there was just way to many people to tell where this mysterious person went to. Then, he caught movement of a black trail moving to the little glass bar. Ralph never kept his eyes off of the figure.

"I think someone is caught in a tide." Vanellope said slyly, punching Ralph lightly on the arm.

"Hey I-I'm not caught in a tide-" Ralph stammered.

"Oh Ralph my brother, I believe you are." Felix said cutting him off.

A sudden noise snapped Ralph back to the glass bar. Standing behind the hooded person was none other than Archer, a tall man who looked like a fighter with the body he had, but not quite. He was in the new game Litwak plugged in a few weeks ago; an arching game where Archer was the main character. _Flying Arrows_ was the name of the game. The goal of the game was to get more points than your opponent. Knowing Archer, he might do something unforgivable.

"Hello there, miss outcast."

At that moment Ralph realized that the person sitting at the bar was none other than a _girl_. She was a real live girl. He could not believe it. Not knowing if it was his own will or something inside him going out of control, Ralph found himself getting up suddenly from his seat and walking straight at the bar. His friends were yelling something at him, but his ears were full of anger that was starting to boil up to hear what they were saying.  
All he knew was that he had to get to her.  
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Lucy's heart stopped as she looked at the face of Archer, who seemed to be bigger that she thought.

"So…what do you want?" she said slowly.

A big grin spread across Archer's face. Lucy's felt her heart go up her throat.

_"A grin like that…it must mean…."_

"You know what I want you to do…" Archer sternly replied, "…you know you're not welcome here."

"I know that."

The grin that was on Archer's face had slowly disappeared. Lucy knew that something was about to happen. For when she looked around, many of the characters that were dancing or standing talking had formed a group around them. Pulling her hood down even lower, Lucy walked a few careful steps toward Archer. _There was no getting out of this fight_. Trying to take the advantage, Lucy grabbed Archer's shirt and pulled him closer than his comfort. She soon realized that a few seconds later it was a bad idea. Archer grabbed the front of her cloak and raised her up in the air. She gave a little yelp as her feet left the colored tiles of the floor. Then Lucy realized that the colored tiles were not below her feet, but aiming straight at her head. Archer had swung Lucy in an arch going from the floor to the ceiling, all the way down to the floor again.  
Her head exploded with pain as she hit the glass floor with such force. For a moment she couldn't get her vision straight. A warm trickle came down the back of her head, in which Lucy realized was blood. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't good either. Lucy flung her hand quickly up to her head, trying to stop the bleeding. Her short-timed impaired vision and hearing made the world around her fuzzy. Suddenly there were huge, loud footsteps and then…

**CRASH!**

Lucy heard something smash into the floor moments after she did.

_"What in the world…?"_

Once she knew her vision was clearing, Lucy opened her eyes, and gasped.  
There, standing protectively in front of her, was a big pair of feet.  
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Standing in the crowd of onlookers, Ralph watched as the girl was flung off her feet by Archer and came plummeting down hard to the ground. His heart flew up into his throat, trying to grasp the situation. The anger that had been boiling up a few minutes before was about to reach its breaking point. But what Archer said next made Ralph mad:

"Not so tough now, are you? You're just a weak coward and that's all you'll ever be."

Inside something just snapped. He ended up shouting out: "HEY! Leave Her ALONE!" Before he knew it, Ralph charged right through the crowd, fists raised high. In a single intense moment, Ralph's huge fist crashed Archer into the ground.

**CRASH!**

All of the spectators gasped in horror as the huge crash echoed the small room. Ralph lifted his hand from the crushed glass floor, which was now a huge crater. Ralph looked back to see that the girl was rubbing the back of her head, which was trickling blood. The arm she was using to rub her head with was all bruised up. A sudden rustle from the crater made him snapped his head back to the now shaken Archer emerging from the huge crater Ralph had created. Without thinking, Ralph stood in front of the girl protectively and raised his fists, ready for a fight. But the man did not move.  
Archer only just stared right past him, right to the girl behind him. His look was menacing, but not as well as to recover from Ralph's hit and come punching back. As sudden as the fight started, it ended. Archer ended up storming out of DDR with his head held high, but with his anger boiling up. The spectators viewing the fight had all since forgotten about it, and returned to their regular dancing or standing around talking; as if nothing had happened.  
Seeing the fight was over and done, Ralph unclenched his fists slowly, letting his hands fall to the side. He realized that his cheeks were starting to turn red, but managed to keep it down.

"Um…are you…are you okay?" he stammered.

But when he turned around, the girl was gone. Panic swept over him as he searched the crowd for any signs of the girl with a hooded cloak. But there was now too many people to tell where she was. Finally, Ralph hung his head, putting his hands to his face and rubbing down.

"RALPH!" came out a shrill cry.

Ralph turned to see that Vanellope was making her way through the crowd. He knelt down so that Vanellope could climb up his arm right on to his shoulder.

"Thank goodness!" spoke the concerned voice of Felix as he and Calhoun made their way behind Vanellope. "We thought you would get pummeled out there."

"Yeah but…turns out he was shaken from that sudden outburst I did." Ralph glumly replied.

Ralph then noticed Calhoun looking around. "So where is that hooded girl that you made google-eyes at?" she finally asked.

Ralph felt his cheeks warm up again. "How should I know!" he blurted aloud, "One minute she was behind me, and the next thing she was gone when I turned to see if she was okay!"  
Vanellope furrowed her brow and gave Ralph a confused look.

"Look guys, I know that this is all coming at you at once," Ralph began, "but I think…I think I need to get out of this place. Maybe she's at the station."

All three of his friends stared at one another, trying to decide if Ralph should go find the so called _mystery girl_, or have him stay to find someone else. Finally, they looked up at Ralph (Vanellope looking down at him) they all gave a short nod. Carefully Ralph plucked Vanellope off his shoulder and gently set her down next to Felix. Before Vanellope could have the chance to say goodbye, Ralph was already out the door heading to Game Central Station.

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**A/N**: And that's Chapter 2! Next chapter I will move the plot some more with what happens when Ralph and Lucy finally meet! As for the fight scene, I made it short and sweet on purpose because there's a lot more conflict that going to happen later on between those two fellas. Please review, I always would love to hear feedback!


	4. Chapter 3: Something In The Air

**A/N**: And...here is Chapter 3! I hope that I can upload more chapters faster in the future, but sometimes it's hard to write. Please read and review, I would love to hear feedback.

**Disclaimer**: Wreck-It Ralph and its characters belong to Disney.

The Magical Bond Between Two Hearts

Chapter 3: Something In The Air…

Archer watched the big bad guy go as he was sitting attending to his wound. He managed to get a huge bruise on his face, especially his nose. Some of the characters came to see if he was okay, or gave him an icy glass to stop the swelling. Archer was in aching pain all over, all from the sheer force of being pummeled to the ground.

"Humph." He grumbled, pushing the icy glass to his face, "That brainless giant has no idea who he's messing with…"

"Archer, are you alright buddy?" came the sound of his _Flying Arrows_ friend Garran; a short little boy who's programmed backstory was about him being an orphan, but was rescued and trained by Archer in the sport of archery. He was always concerned about Archer's health, but Archer was too angry to be soft to him.

"NO I'M NOT!" Archer yelled at Garran, who flinched and took a step back. Seeing as he was attracting attention from the crowd of dancers, Archer cleared his throat, and then slowly leaned in closer to Garran.

"I'm not okay because some giant ape interfered with what was to be a fight between me and that coward of a girl." He whispered menacingly. For a moment Garran remained silent, taking it all in.

"But…" he finally replied, "…why didn't you fight back? Surely you could have taken him head on and still come out in one piece."

Archer lowered his gaze, knowing how confident his student was at his strength against anyone, then quietly said: "Did you know who that giant was that hit me?! That was _Wreck-It-Ralph_. The look on his face was pure anger." Archer looked around to see the gamers went back to their dancing, "And when you see him angry when you're in his way, you know you don't want to mess with him."

"Good point." Garran replied, "But what about the girl, _Lucy_."

Suddenly Garran flinched, finding him being pulled in too close to Archer. "The next time I see that weak coward," Archer whispered intensely, "I'm going to make sure she had never set foot outside her game."

Tears came welling up in Lucy's eyes as she made her way out of the DDR party, into the train, and finally running down the stairs into Game Central Station. Slowing down to a brisk walk, Lucy started to cry out loud; _no one was there to listen anyway_. The tears she held back came rushing rapidly out of her eyes. After a full few minutes the tears stopped, and Lucy then opened her eyes to see her hands were wet, as well as her cloak, stained with tears. She suddenly heard the flapping sound of wings in the still silence.

Sophie flew down from her perch that was on one of the windows in GCS, seeing something was wrong with Lucy. Landing on her shoulder, the bird stared at her with big, concerning eyes.

"Hi Soph…" Lucy said softly. The bird did not move.

Lucy looked ahead to see she was still walking briskly forward, about to run into the wall at her place in GCS where she called home. She adjusted to walking slowly avoiding hitting the wall in front of her. A sad, lonely sigh came out from her, echoing the walls and reverberating around her.

"AAAAAAHHHHH!" Lucy yelled out suddenly. Sophie jumped startled from Lucy's shoulder and flew a few feet up from her.

Lucy closed her eyes, her eyes starting to get tears once again. "What have I done?" she shouted, softer this time.

Opening her eyes, she started to notice that something seemed wrong in the now empty, dim station.  
She looked around to find Sophie, concern filling her face.

"Hey Sophie, where are you? Come down! Something's wrong!"

She then heard the flapping of wings as Sophie slowly flew down to land on her shoulder. Lucy leaned her head to the bird, trying to comfort Sophie's constant fear in her eyes. A sudden creak made Lucy stop in her tracks, long since she stopped walking. Turning her head slowly, Lucy looked to see what made the soft creaking noise. Her eyes widened. The sound came from something moving forward in the distance. Yet she couldn't see what that thing was.

_"A shadow…?"_ she asked herself.

The thing now seemed to have stopped in its tracks, as if it had a certain goal in mind. _As if it was trying to find something._ Lucy's heart stopped as she tried to contain a short yelp trying to escape her lips. There was no question, the thing standing before Lucy was looking for _her_. Without thinking in swift motion, she found herself flinging behind one of the benches, Sophie flying away, trying to keep out of sight of this thing that was slowly making its way towards her hiding place.

The anticipation to find the girl resonated in his mind as Ralph made his way to Game Central Station. In a part of his mind Ralph was sure to find the girl still there, but in another he started to think that she had disappeared forever, never to be seen again. He hoped that wouldn't be true. The train slowly made its last few stretches to the end of the DDR portal, each movement weighing Ralph down with more anticipation to be out of the train. Finally the train at last came to a complete stop, with Ralph running straight out and down the steps to Game Central.

As he approached the end of the gateway, Ralph had reduced his run to a slow walk. For some reason he could not go any faster than he already was. _"If she is real, then what is she like? What if she's a bad guy that doesn't care about others? No…. There's no time to doubt, I have to get to her. I have to know who she…"_

A loud scream interrupted his train of thought. Panic spread across his face, as he now started to run again into GCS, his breath exploding with sudden, rapid gasps. When he finally ran through the gateway into the station, a feeling deep down inside told him that something was wrong. _Very wrong_. The station was always full of life, even if it was only filled with a few characters and the SPs guarding the gates. But when he looked out onto the vast opening that was GCS, there was absolutely no life anywhere. It was much dimmer than he had ever seen it before.

"Where is everyone?" he wondered. Then he realized that he already knew the answer. "Ah come on genius! They're all at the party."

Suddenly he heard a flapping sound coming from the right side of the station. He didn't know where, but Ralph knew that he heard something. Slowly he turned to the right. His eyes fixed on a silhouette of a figure just standing there.

_"Who is…?"_

But when he took a step closer, the figure suddenly was gone. _Like the person had disappeared into thin air._ Ralph furrowed his brow in confusion; wondering what could have been standing there just a moment ago, then wasn't there anymore. Taking a deep breath, he straightened up, and then started walking toward the far right bench.

As the figure drew closer, Lucy heard that the footsteps were not of an ordinary person's feet. The steps it made were very loud, and sounded as if it was taking huge steps. The sinking feeling she had before became even deeper.

"What do I do? I can't fight like this, I'm a mess!"

Lucy frantically tried to figure out what in the world she planned to do. _"I can't just charge out in a full frontal attack. By the way this…THING… is sounding, it's too big to take on by myself."_

"And I can't just run away either; or else this big thing will come chasing after me. I wouldn't want that to happen, this thing would probably be too fast. The only thing I can do is…is…

…Hide."

As the word came out of her mouth, there came another sound. Lucy strained her ears, trying to listen closely to the new sound.

_"Is that…more footsteps? No…it doesn't sound like footsteps, more like…a voice."_

"Hello…i-is anyone…a-anybody…anybody here?" the voice called out.

Lucy was too terrified to move. "This _thing_ had a _voice_. _But, shadows don't have voices…_

Do they?"

Slowly, Lucy rose from behind the bench and turned.

A pair of hazel eyes stared back at her.

Ralph's uneasiness started to grow.

_"I've never seen the station so empty before, so…dark."_

But Ralph did not have time to worry about that right now. He had to know if the girl was okay; and if in fact he had just seen her silhouette on the right side of Game Central. With his courage waning with each step he took, Ralph somehow managed to squeak out one sentence.

"Hello…i-is anyone…a-anybody…anybody here?"

In the corner of his eye, he saw a slight movement coming from the bench at the end. Doing the best he can to keep quiet; Ralph cautiously made his way over to the far bench. He had just reached the back of it, when something suddenly popped out from behind the bench.

A pair of golden eyes stared back at him.

For what seemed like a lifetime, Ralph stared at those eyes in silence. Then he caught a glimpse of fear in them, and without warning, the girl he was desperately looking for started to loudly scream.

The first instinct Lucy felt as she stared at those brown eyes was to fight back. But stricken with terror, instead she screamed as loud as her lungs could handle. The thing in front of her covered its ears as soon as her scream loudly came out. She could not see what happened next, but in an instant her scream ceased to a muffled squeak. Still stricken with fear, Lucy looked down to see something humongous covering her mouth. At first she thought it was a cloth that was put around her mouth, but as she looked closer she realized: it was a hand.

_"Who is this thing?"_ she pondered in her mind, trying to struggle out of its tight grip on her.

"Hey, calm down would you? I'm not going to hurt you!" a familiar voice said in the darkness.

Lucy stopped struggling: _"I know that voice…"_

Ralph's ears were ringing as the girl's scream got louder and louder. Finally, after trying to block out the agonizing sound, Ralph jumped straight over the girl's head and firmly clasped his huge wrecking hand over her mouth. She froze for a few seconds as he tightened his other hand around her little body, being careful not to harm her.

"Hey, calm down would you? I'm not going to hurt you!" he explained firmly.

The girl squirming in his arms suddenly stopped, and stood perfectly still.

"Look…" Ralph continued, "I am about as scared and surprised as you are, but you've got to calm down. You could scare someone screaming like that."

She did not move. Ralph was sure that she would run away if by the chance he'd let go.

"Listen I'm going to let go of you, but you must promise not to run away, okay?"

After a long pause, he saw the girl slowly nod her head. Ralph let out a nervous sigh.

"Alright then." He replied, slowly letting go of the girl and stepping back. When she turned around to face him, Ralph noticed she was oddly troubled by the look she gave him. He was about to ask what was wrong, when a horrible growl came from the other side of the station.

After hearing what the thing had to say, Lucy pondered over if she should _trust it_. Then something cold made her shiver, something _very_ cold. At first she thought it was the thing that was holding her tightly. Then from out of nowhere, came a feeling of warmth. Looking around with her eyes, Lucy didn't see anything else. _Wait…_

She looked back up, realizing that the warmth was coming from the one that was holding her. In her mind she started to worry; something was out there, an _evil entity_. Knowing now that she could trust this thing that might be a person, Lucy slowly nodded her head.

_"I hope I know what I'm doing."_ Cautiously, it loosened its grip over her mouth and let go of her body. She gave a quiet gasp so that it couldn't hear her. When she was sure that she was okay, Lucy turned to face whoever was behind her.

It was then that a low, menacing growl shattered the silence of the station. Lucy jerked her head suddenly, realizing what waited behind her. What she and the thing behind her saw, was a looming darkness with no shape or form, coming right at them with haste. In one seemingly long second, Lucy grabbed the thing by the hand and jerked the person and herself out of the way just in time. They fell to the ground as the dark entity vanished into thin air.

Silence followed as the two of them lay flat on the floor. Slowly, they both sat up looking to where the thing had just disappeared.

"What was that thing?" Lucy turned and saw the person looking at her. She then realized the question was directed to her.

"U-uh…" she stammered bashfully.

The person lowered its eyes and looked away, apparently lost in thought. "THAT IS…I mean…" she blurted out, making the person turn back again surprised. Lucy took a long breath.

"It's a shadow." She finally answered, "It's a darkness that is made of _pure evil_."

She found herself looking closer at the person's face; she noticed that it was in fact a person; a _guy_. That's when she realized it seemed brighter in here that a few moments ago. She could clearly _see him_. There was another pause of silence as she stared silently at him, taking in what was in front of her. He was a rather tall person; taller than any she had seen. To her he seemed about 9 feet tall, with his broad shoulders bulging out to the sides. He wore large overalls, with one strap seeming to be broken, and two pairs of shirts right under them. But was mostly intrigued Lucy was his face. His big brown eyes mesmerized Lucy, and his expression seemed to be very blank. She noticed that when she looked at his face for the first time, his cheeks have turned a bit red, as if he was slightly embarrassed.

_"I wonder…could he be that guy who had…saved me?"_

For the first time, Ralph could actually see what she looked like. After seeing the thing that had stricken him with horror, as it was charging towards them, he was suddenly pulled down by her onto the ground with such force; that it shook his teeth from the inside at the sudden impact. In the process, the girl's hood had fallen off her head, though he realized that she didn't know it had fallen off because she was distracted by who was in front of her: _him_. But as she was looking at him, he couldn't help but notice the girl's features as well. The cloak still covered her body, but her face was as clear as daylight. Her hair was a delicate light brown that covered some of her face; mostly her left eye. Her skin was a very delicate pink, and her eyes were an odd color of a deep gold.

A moment ago he had asked the girl what that thing _was_ that attacked them. She was hesitant to reply, so Ralph was about to look where it was again, when she had said something that made him jump and turn back to her, realizing then he was looking, truly, at her.

His cheeks had heated to a faded red. Ralph hadn't noticed until the girl gave him a curious look. He quickly fought down the redness in his cheeks and cleared his throat.

"So…uh…w-what's your name?"

Now the girl gave him a quizzical look. "My name?" she answered softly.

Ralph now was trying to fight the hot blood coming back to his cheeks. "Yeah, your name." he said as calmly as he could.

The girl first looked at him quizzically again, but then she gave him a bashful expression, looking downward more to his big bare feet.

"No one has asked me my name before." She faintly responded.

There was yet another silence, Ralph had noticed. He wanted to just run away, back to his little shack in Fix-It-Felix Jr., but he stayed; he still stayed: because of _her_.

"Well..." he shyly started, rubbing one of his huge hands on the back of his neck, "…my name is…uh…_Wreck-It-Ralph_…b-but you can call me Ralph if you like!" he blurted out loudly.

Ralph realized he had a bright red showing on his cheeks. He was relieved when he saw that she wasn't looking at him, but still looking at the floor. Giving up all hope in his mind, Ralph carefully got to his feet. He was about to walk away, when he heard the smallest sound from behind him.

_"Lucy…"_

He slowly turned around, to see that the girl was on her feet, staring right at him. Ralph stared back, dumbfounded.

"My name is Lucy." she replied again a little louder.

Ralph just stood there, looking at the tiny girl. He tried to say something, anything that could respond to her, but nothing came out.

_"Come on Ralph…say something! Don't leave her hanging!"_ his mind screamed.

"It's very nice to meet you, Wreck-It-Ralph." Lucy said expectantly.

Ralph blinked out of his daze, "Oh! It's…very nice to meet you too…um…"

"Lucy." she finished.

"Yeah right, Lucy. It's nice to meet you."

For the first time, Ralph saw a little smile come from her lips.

**A/N**: Sooo... yep there's something happening here. And I'm excited to see what happens next! Please leave a review and tell me what you think.


	5. Chapter 4: An Unexpected Friend

**A/N**: This chapter took me so long to write, but here it is, Chapter 4! I personally like this chapter. Please read and review, feedback is much appreciated.

**Disclaimer**: I do not own the rights to Wreck-It-Ralph, the rights belong to Disney.

The Magical Bond Between Two Hearts

Chapter 4

An Unexpected Friend

She could not believe that she had so much courage inside. The words just sort of came out, one at a time, as she told him her name. She smiled back at him when he stuttered back her name. When Lucy smiled she thought that the very large person standing before her would think her weird. But when she looked at the smile on the giant's face, Lucy thought that something had sparked; as though she felt something come alive again after the nine long years of loneliness and solitude.

For a moment the two of them stood there, staring at each other not knowing what to do. Then Lucy found herself taking a step forward towards him, forgetting the knotting fear that had welled up inside her.

"What are you?" she asked him nervously.

"Well..." he started, "...I'm a game character just like you, I suppose."

"A game character?" Lucy asked confusingly.

"Yeah, you know... the people that are inside the game...that live in the arcade. You know, people like _us_."

Lucy stared dumbfoundedly at him taking in the words she had heard. "So, um... Ralph right?"

The giant nodded his head slowly.

"You...were at the party right...at DDR?"

He nodded again not saying a word.

"Were you...I mean when I was in that fight...did you...?"

Lucy found that she could not finish her sentence, and that her head was slowly sinking downward. _Maybe this was not the right guy...was I wrong?_

"Yes I did."

Startled Lucy slowly raised her head again to find that he had knelt down to her eye level, and apparently had gotten closer to her. He smiled gently at her his cheeks giving off a red glow. _"I wonder why he does that?" _Lucy wondered.

Looking at his soft brown eyes she realized that no words could give her the answer: she knew it was this guy, _Ralph_, that saved her.

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Ralph felt his heart pounding the whole time as they exchanged warm glances at each other. It took him a great amount of energy to keep back the blood flowing to his cheeks, but he could not contain all of it. As he knelt down to the girl's level, Ralph noticed that she was looking rather strangely at him.

"What are you doing?" she finally asked, her big eyes blinking.

Ralph gave a confusing look, for he did not know what she was talking about.

"Your face..." she said, suddenly putting her face closer to his. Ralph could barely contain the red in his cheeks now.

"Um...w-what about it?" he replied weakly trying to control himself from being this close to her.

She blinked again and stared at him, until she cautiously moved back from his face. Relief went through his mind as she backed away from him.

"Sorry...I didn't mean to get so close but...your cheeks were red." she apologetically explained.

"Oh, this? It's alright really, you don't have to apologize." he quickly replied, "It's just...a little warm in here that's all."

Lucy's curious eyes did not waver. She again gave a warm smile back at him, a relieved expression crossing her face. Ralph smiled back, putting his hand on the back of his head.

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"So, anyways..." he continued after some silence, "...I just wanted to see if you were hurt at all, I mean the way that guy threw you..." he shuddered to think about that fight.

"Well..." Lucy then remembered the pain from being thrown so hard from the fight. Her hand flew up to the back of her head, where she remembered it was bleeding. But when she felt her head, there was no more sign of trickling blood anywhere. _I guess it healed up on its own._

"Oh, your arm! It's all bruised up." Ralph exclaimed worriedly.

Lucy looked down at the arm she used. He was right, it was all bruised up. _"Must have happened when Archer grabbed me."_ Lucy thought. She looked at Ralph and saw that he extended his big hand out to her.

"Here, give me your arm."

Lucy shook her head and cradled her arm away from his hand. "You're not going to do something bad are you?" she asked.

"No of course not." he responded gently, "The only thing you need to worry about me is losing my temper. So please...give me your arm. Trust me."

Lucy's mind was swirling with uncertainty, but somehow she knew that he was telling the truth. Her arm slowly reached out to his giant hand, then hesitated. Finally she let him take her arm. She then felt a sudden sensation that she had never felt before: blood boiling in her cheeks.

_RIIPP!_

Lucy looked up to see Ralph holding and wrapping a piece of cloth around her arm.

"Wait, that's from your shirt. You ruined it!"

"Ah, it's alright. My shirt was a mess anyways." Ralph calmly replied.

She looked at him curiously again. _First the cheeks, now his shirt. It was like something weird had taken over him ever since he set eyes on her_. The both of them remained quiet as Lucy's arm was tended to by Ralph. Then Lucy remembered that his hands that were helping her, were in fact, giant hands. She looked closer at the hands, her curiosity getting the best of her.

"Your hands..." she muttered. Ralph looked up at her, but Lucy didn't seem to notice.

"You mean my wrecker hands?" he asked finally.

This time Lucy looked up to see Ralph staring at her, staring at his hands.

"Uh, yeah!" she exclaimed to loudly, "I...well didn't mean to stare, it's just..." She felt her face get extremely warm.

"Just...what?" she heard Ralph ask as she turned away her face.

"Well, there just so...BIG." she quietly muttered.

She felt a sudden tug on her arm, signaling that he had finished wrapping her arm. She raised her arm up to her to see that the cloth from Ralph's shirt was now wrapped tightly around her upper arm, almost up to her shoulder.

"Thanks." she found herself saying to him.

"Um...you-you're welcome." he replied bashfully.

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The girl smiled back at Ralph as she lowered her arm to her side. Her eyes still looked curiously at his big wrecker hands, the hands that he used for wrecking the Niceland building. It was his job after all.

"So, what game are you from? I've never really seen you around before." Ralph asked her.

Ralph regretted what he said when Lucy's expression changed from a warm smile to a sad, glum stare. She sank down into the bench that was behind her, lowering her head.

"I'm... not from any game anymore." she whispered glumly.

At first Ralph thought that she was playing. When Lucy looked up though, Ralph felt the red in his cheeks wash away completely. The look in her eyes was serious, he realized that she _meant_ what she said.

"I'm sorry." was his only reply as he sat down next to her.

"No...it's okay." Lucy responded smiling, "It's not anyone's fault but mine..."

Ralph gave her a quizzical look, but Lucy was looking away at him not taking notice.

_"What does she mean...her fault?" _Ralph wondered.

Before he could ask her though, she suddenly recovered from her glumness and was now looking directly at him again with her big eyes wide.

"Heh, look at me, blabbering on about nothing...I want to know about you. So what game are you from?" Lucy asked excitingly.

At first Ralph was taken aback. _No one ever asked him what game he was from, especially a girl for that matter._ Suddenly he recalled what Calhoun had said before: _You won't know unless you try_. Ralph breathed in a huge sigh and for the first time in his life: was trying to talk to a girl.

"Okay here goes... I'm from the game _Fix-It-Felix Jr._ And _Fix-It-Felix Jr._ is a game that has been at Litwak's Arcade for more than 30 years now. The goal of the game is to fix the Niceland building, because that's the name of the game. The main guy is Fix-It-Felix Jr., and he's nice as good guy's go..." Ralph paused, taking another deep breath.

"So...what part do you play?" Lucy asked after a while.

_"You can do this...she has to know who you really are."_

"Well...I'm..." the words were stuck in his throat. Lucy waited in anticipation.

"I'm the _bad guy_." he finished. Panic was spreading all through his nine foot body, waiting for the reply from who he thought to be the kindest girl he had ever met.

_"That's it. I blew it. She's going to say that I'm not the right guy and leave. It's over. I BLEW it."_

He waited for her voice to say it, but instead he was astonished. Instead what he heard was something that he had never thought someone would say at all.

"What's...a bad guy?"

Lucy gave him the most curious look that he had never seen a young girl like her do before. It was the curious look of not a young lady...but a _child_. _He had never seen someone that had the expressions of a child_. _"Then again..." _Ralph contemplated, _"Vanellope would be the only one who would give him looks like that, except she would be begging me to go with her somewhere I don't want to go. Or racing."_

"Ralph?" Lucy's curious voice snapped Ralph back into reality, as he realized she was waiting for his answer.

"You...don't _know_ what a bad guy is?" he asked unsurely.

Lucy shook her head.

"Well...a bad guy's...someone who is not the hero, you know, a villain and...he is supposed to foil the good guy so that...he can get what he wants."

Ralph found it hard to explain his title to her, fearing that she would still get up and leave him, never to see him again so to speak. But Lucy was listening to every word of it without any anger or judgment, but with the same child-like curious eyes that grew wider the further he explained.

Then without realizing it before, Ralph noticed that it was getting late. _Really late_. Quickly he rose to his feet, leaving Lucy with a surprised look.

"It's...it's getting pretty late now a-and I had better get going home now!" he shouted loudly.

Ralph realized that he said that too loudly and look back at Lucy. She didn't seem to mind, instead she gave a small smile.

"Okay." she replied as she also rose to her feet, "I guess you're right, it _is _getting late."

Ralph suddenly felt the blood coming back to his cheeks again, just like before.

"Well, I guess I better be going. Goodbye...Lucy."

He extended a hand out to Lucy for a handshake. She was so small to him, almost like Vanellope was, but Vanellope was only a kid compared to her. Lucy extended her hand and took his. In his grip her little hands were warm and soft as they shook hands. Then with that, Ralph turned and started to walk home.

"RALPH WAIT!"

He jumped as halfway to his gate. He turned back and saw that Lucy was running toward him. He stopped to let her catch up, and when she finally got to him he got down to his knees to see her better.

"When...when can I see you again?" she managed to say out of breath.

Ralph smiled down at the girl, "Tomorrow of course!" he exclaimed, "I have to know more about where you came from. I mean, you didn't give me much to go with."

"And, you've got to tell me more about you too, you know!" she replied happily.

Ralph chuckled, realizing that he also did not tell her much about him either. He heard Lucy giggle softly, probably realizing too that she had to tell him her story.

"Tomorrow it is then." she gleefully responded.

He gave a nod, then carefully got to his feet. He and Lucy both smiled at each other, Ralph taking one last look at her. Then turning he started again to head home.

"Ralph?"

He turned his head to see Lucy's warm smile.

"You know, you're the first person who has ever talked to me ever since I got here." she said warmly, "I think...you're a good friend."

And from that moment, Ralph knew that Lucy was someone special.

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And Lucy knew from when she look at him the first time, to when he waved goodbye as he entered his portal home, that Wreck-It-Ralph was someone special.

Having made it back home on the right side of Game Central Station, Lucy did not care now what had happened at the party, or what had happened between her and Archer. As Lucy wrapped the cloak around her for warmth, she slowly drifted off into a warm slumber. For the first time in 9 years Lucy dreamed happy dreams that night, while in her thoughts only one thing was clearly there:

_"Tomorrow I get to see him again...I get to see Ralph again."_

**A/N**: Chapter 4... right now my favorite chapter that I've written. Oh I said this again! But still this is a good chapter in my opinion. But that's just me, what do you guys think? Reviews are helpful and much appreciated. I'm working on the next chapter now, so it might take a while to finish it, because of me being a novice writer and such. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Will try to update soon.


	6. Chapter 5: The Little Trinket

**A/N**: Well here we go! Down into the first attempt of making a chapter that doesn't have Lucy in it, just the four main characters of Wreck-It Ralph. I hope this turns out well. Reviews are helpful and help me become a better writer.

**Disclaimer:** Disney owns the rights to Wreck-It Ralph and the characters within. My Ocs and Oc games are all owned by me, that's all.

The Magical Bond Between Two Hearts

Chapter 5: The Little Trinket

It was very late when Vanellope, Calhoun and Felix arrived back at _Fix-It-Felix Jr._ As soon as the train stopped at the station, Vanellope took off running to find Ralph. The rest of the time they were at the party, Vanellope was expecting Ralph to come back after he suddenly took off. But when the party was over and everyone starting to leave, she began to worry that Ralph had run into some trouble.

"Don't worry Vanellope." Felix had reassured her, "Probably Ralph was too tired to come back. He's probably back home sleeping it off."

Vanellope however was not sure if that was what exactly happened. She had to talk to him before the arcade opened. She had to know if the stinkbrain was okay.

That was the only thing that she could think about as she raced around the game to find him. Finally she stopped over by East Niceland, a section built after Ralph's game jumping adventure; and it was also where he and the Q*Bert gang were residing to this day. She walked over to Ralph's little shack, not an impressive building but Ralph said that it would suit him just fine. Vanellope jumped up to the nearest window of his house and looked in.

_"Not here...where could he be?"_

She was now getting very worried seeing that Ralph was not in fact sleeping inside his house.

Then she heard someone give a big, loud yawn. As she turned around, a big smile came across her little face. She raced towards the huge pile of bricks, the dump, which was where Ralph's original home was when just one year ago he was nothing more than a bad guy to everyone.

"RALPH!" Vanellope shouted happily as she made her way up the mountain of bricks to his big hulk body. He was apparently sitting there, seeming to be looking out towards something. When Vanellope finally reached him (which did not take long at all), she took a good look as her friend.

_"I knew there was something wrong with him." _she silently grumbled.

And she was right. When Vanellope glanced at Ralph, she notice that he wasn't his usual self. It was as if he was in a trance. There was a small smile across his face, and as Vanellope looked closer she noticed that his cheeks were a bright red.

"Hey! Are you in there?! Come on, WAKE UP!" she yelled.

Just slightly, Ralph gave a surprised jump. He blinked once, then gave another big yawn. He slowly looked down at Vanellope, blinking again a second time.

"Hey kid." he replied dazzlingly.

Vanellope frowned and gave him a stern look. "Are you okay? You seem kinda... _off_."

For a moment Ralph looked at her as if he didn't know what she was talking about.

"I'm fine kid." he responded after a minute went by, "I'm just...thinking about some things."

This time it was Vanellope's turn to stare at him like she didn't know what he was talking about.

"Ralph, there you are!" came the chipper voice of Felix as he finally made his way towards the two of them.

"You really got to fix up this mess, Wreck-It! It gets harder and harder to get up here."

Calhoun was just behind Felix, apparently not impressed that she had to use some strength to get up here.

"Hey Felix, Calhoun." was all Ralph could say as they finally caught up to them.

Vanellope exchanged a confused glance with the Fix-It's seeing if they knew what was going on. Unfortunately, they did not know either.

"This is rather strange." Felix whispered to Calhoun, "I've never seen him like this before."

"Well, I may not know what happened to him after he left, but something is on his mind." Calhoun whispered back, "I think we should find out."

Vanellope waited no more as she jumped up onto Ralph's big shoulder.

"So...where were you exactly?" she asked him, "We've been worried that you got into some trouble. Well..._I_ was worried." she twiddled the strings on her hoodie as she said this.

"I know..." Ralph nodded, "...I...well the truth is..."

The smile on Ralph grew bigger. Vanellope gasped. _Now she understood_.

"The truth is... _what_?" Felix asked.

Vanellope turned to him and smiled.

"He met someone."

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"So, are you going to tell us about her?" Felix asked politely, but with great expectation.

"C'mon Knuckles! Tell us!" Vanellope urged on.

Ralph, who was sitting down on an oversized chair in his own house, sighed and stood up. His friends found him earlier sitting on top of his tree stump on the brick pile, thinking about the events that transpired that night. He was embarrassed when Vanellope knew what was going on just by the expression on his face. _I must have looked pretty dumb if Vanellope found out that quick_.

"You guys had better not make fun of me if I tell you." he replied sternly.

"Oh don't worry, we won't." Vanellope responded, the smile on her face growing bigger.

Ralph frowned back at her. He knew that she wouldn't keep a promise well.

"Okay, I...met a girl and...she's, um...different." he began nervously.

"Different, how?" Vanellope asked urging.

"Give Ralph some time Vanellope. It's hard enough for him to explain this, even to us." Felix told her as polite as he could.

Ralph in his own mind always appreciated Felix's help. _Its his nature to be nice, he's a good guy_.

"Go on Ralph." Calhoun said gruffly, for even Ralph could tell she was impatient as well as Vanellope was. But Vanellope was way too excited than Calhoun.

"Anyway um, she's different than the rest of the girls I've been introduced too." he narrowed his eyes at Vanellope, giving her a rugged look. Her smug just grew wider, making the knot he had in his stomach worse. _I knew this was a bad idea_.

"Its as if...she's sort of _childlike_. I've never seen a grown girl that had the traits of a child before." he continued, "When I told her that I was a bad guy-"

"You _TOLD HER_?" all three of them gasped at once.

Ralph was caught by surprise, not suspecting a reaction like that when in fact they told him to try. "Well, yeah I did."

"You goofball!" Vanellope exclaimed as she suddenly jumped onto Ralph's arm, "You really are clueless!"

"What's that supposed to mean?!" Ralph retorted.

Her smug smile grew so much that her cheeks seemed to have turned red. Felix gave a small chuckle.

"What she means Ralph, is that you've surprised us with that sudden courage. Jiminy! I'm all dazzled now!" Felix trembled excitingly.

"Telling a girl that you're a bad guy and not backing out, that takes some guts." Calhoun remarked, a hint of impression in her voice.

For a moment Ralph just stood there looking at his friends; Vanellope on his arm, and the Fix-It's sitting there impressed at what he had just told them.

"Sooo..." Vanellope had now crawled up to Ralph's shoulder, "Are you going to go on a _date_ with this girl soon?"

A chill went through Ralph's neck when he heard the word_ date_. Suddenly he felt the blood in his cheeks boil up again.

"Sweet mother of marshmallows! You already have!" Vanellope exclaimed smugly.

She grabbed onto his sleeve and in a quick motion, squeezed onto Ralph's neck.

"Hey! C'mon Vanellope, let go!" Ralph fidgeted, but Vanellope wouldn't let go of him.

"RALPH HAS GOT A DATE!" Vanellope playfully shouted.

The blood in his cheeks now were uncontrollable, and Ralph found himself turn very red in embarrassment. _It was a bad idea from the start, I knew I should have stayed quiet_.

"Alright, kid. That's enough of the excited gleefulness." Calhoun implied, "Ralph...you don't have to tell us everything."

"Yeah pal." Felix chimed in, "You just met her. And here we are making it more awkward by asking you these uncomfortable questions." Felix stood up and walked over to him, then patted his giant hand.

"You must be exhausted from this adventure you had." Felix asked him after a minute passed.

Ralph nodded silently. He looked at Vanellope to see that the mockery and smugness in her face had softened, realizing that she knew that Felix was right.

"Well," Felix sighed heading for the door, "I guess it's time for us to say good night then."

"Yep." Calhoun agreed, "I'm beat."

Ralph gave a little smile as he watched them go. He gave them a wave goodbye as the Fix-It's left his shack. As he watched them go, he suddenly gave a loud yawn. _"They're right. I'm really exhausted._"

And with that yawn, he felt Vanellope slowly jump off of his shoulder, landing on the floor with a tap. She looked up at him with her big, hazel eyes and smiled.

"G'night then stinkbrain." she said softly.

She turned to walk away. He knew then that she was giving him the look of a "sleepover."

"Hey kid, listen..."

She immediately turned around, and by the look on her face she knew what he was going to say.

"SLEEPOVER!" she cried out happily as she starting bouncing around the room.

Ralph couldn't help but smile as his little friend happily jumped from every wall of his one floor shack.

"I knew you didn't want me to go, lover boy!" she exclaimed after finally settling down.

He felt himself turn red again. "Okay, okay. Enough with this conversation already." he told her, "I just want to get some sleep before the arcade opens, alright?"

"You got it, chief!" Vanellope replied tiringly. She gave out a huge yawn. "Aw, man! Now you've got me yawning!"

Ralph laughed at her, then suddenly he gave another great big yawn. Stretching his big arms, he made his way to his bed. His eyes were groggy with sleep as he plopped down on his bed that wasn't quite big enough for him. His feet were dangling from the end of the bed, but he did not care. Before he drifted off to sleep however, he felt the little figure of Vanellope curl up on his chest under his big hand.

"G'night Ralphie. I'm glad that you met someone." she whispered as she snuggled down on Ralph's huge chest. Slowly Ralph curled his hand around Vanellope, pushing her closely against him. At last, tired as he was, he drifted off to a deep sleep.

While he was in his slumber though, a vivid dream came to his mind. At first he couldn't make out anything other than a blinding, golden light. However as he got closer to the light, he could make out a small, silhouetted figure in the distance. The blinding light had gotten brighter, so he had to shield his eyes with one of his hands just to see.

_Who could that be...?_

A realization came to his mind as he gasped in awe.

The figure that he beheld in the light was a girl.

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"Alright Ralph. We need to straighten some things out."

"Why are we doing this kid?" Ralph protested.

"Because you've never been on a date before silly!" Vanellope replied, "Besides you don't even know her well enough yet."

"So? That doesn't mean that this is _necessary_!" he shouted restraining the anger in his voice.

She gave him a serious frown. Ralph returned it with a scowl. Ever since the previous night, his mind was on the date that was at hand after the arcade closed. He couldn't as much as really concentrate on his job that day, letting Felix win most of the games. After the arcade had closed Ralph was received with showers of praise and questions from the Nicelanders, who apparently found out from Felix before the day started.

But that wasn't the thing that was bothering him that day though. Instead he was bothered about how he would face the girl Lucy that night. He knew that he couldn't mess it up, yet in his mind something probed in his mind that reassured him.

That everything would work out fine.

As Vanellope stared him down though, he began to have second thoughts to the thought that probed at him.

"UGH! FINE KID, YOU WIN!" he sighed, "But this had better help me!"

"Ah, don't worry about that, it will." a smug came across her face.

_"Oh no. This cannot be good." _he uttered to himself.

"If you would follow me." she ordered, skipping away delightedly.

Ralph gave a huge sigh and proceeded right behind her, keeping his distance. He knew then that Vanellope was going to do something that would embarrass him in front of his new friend. _I hope that it is not one of those ridiculous outfits that she once gave me for that party at Tapper's_. Ralph shuddered to think about that one night at Tapper's where the kid made him wear one of the most embarrassing outfits he had ever worn. An itchy, dark green sweater that she had knitted herself for that occasion. Everyone there couldn't stop laughing at him, and he had not been there for more than five minutes before he had to leave with his head reddened with anger and embarrassment.

"Alright Ralph, wait here I'll be right back." Vanellope said stopping him at the East Niceland entrance.

She ran off, leaving Ralph with a hanging question on his lips: _"How am I going to get out of this?"_

After what seemed like hours, she came zipping back to him, her little hands behind her back. Seeing her like this reminded Ralph of the gift Vanellope gave him a year ago when she was a glitch. She had made a heart-shaped cookie that bared the words _You're My Hero_ on it. It was the most precious gift that Vanellope had given to him. Ralph touched the same cookie necklace that was hanging around his neck, a warm feeling welling up inside him as he remembered that day from a year ago when he had meet the little pipsqueak who had stolen the medal he had gotten from Hero's Duty.

"I'm back!" cried Vanellope as she scurried up to his feet.

"Welcome back." Ralph replied sarcastically.

She shook her head showing a warm smile, "Okay Ralph, I'm going to give you something that will help on that date. First close your eyes."

Ralph did as he was told and shut his eyes. Though he couldn't see anything but black, he suddenly felt something warmer than he had felt strike him. _That's strange..._ This warm unknown feeling suddenly grew stronger. Then...Ralph had the strangest thought.

_This feeling...it feels...good. Really good, like nothing I've felt. But...what is it?_

"Okay! Open your eyes!"

Ralph's eyes flickered open, and as quickly as it had come, the warm feeling suddenly went away. He trained his thoughts to the matter at hand. His first thought was to look down at his apparel. Nothing had changed, he saw was his plaid, orange shirt and red overalls. _Good, no itchy sweater._

The next thought he had was to look at what was apparently put into his huge hand. Ralph opened up his hand. Inside his hand was what looked like a hair clip badly made. He recognized that what he held in his hand was a hair pin that he had made himself. The clip itself was made out of the broken stemware that he had found one day in the dump (thinking that Mary had thrown it out because it was too old. He had to carefully polished it with his big wrecker hands, knowing of course having wrecker hands were not for making things, but for breaking them. A flower with a few missing petals lay on the outside of the clip, even though Ralph did not know what kind it was. All he knew was he had found it one day as he was walking along the Nicelander Apartment Building. He found it lying out of place on the sidewalk and thought it best if he took care of it.

Now as he was standing there, stupefied by the trinket in his hands, he had wondered how Vanellope had come by it. He kept it an absolute secret from everyone, even Felix didn't know about his little project.

"Where did you get this from?" he asked Vanellope after recovering from being stupefied by the gift.

"I found it." was all she said.

"How did you find this?" he asked, feeling a temper coming on. A bad one at that.

"It was out on the table in your house when I woke up. I didn't want you to find out about it until now."

"Kid, that was something that I wanted to keep secret!" Ralph replied trying to control his bubbling temper that was now rising.

He saw her face had turned from a happy to a sad look.

"Oh, I...I'm sorry." she stammered, "I thought that it would make a nice present."

"For what?" he asked.

Vanellope did not say anything. She kept her eyes glued down to her little feet. Ralph took in a breath calming himself, then let out a huge sigh.

"Look, I appreciate your help." he warmly comforted, "But I think...I think that I can do this. I don't know, I'm just..." he paused realizing he was raising his voice. He took in another breath, "...I'm really nervous. I've never done something like this before."

"Well, then it's time to learn." she said softly.

Ralph looked down at her to see that she was again smiling, but not a smug smile. It was a smile of understanding and encouragement. He returned a warm grin back at her.

"What are you waiting for then? GO ON! Go to your date. She's waiting for you."

For the first time this evening he realized that it was late.

"OH GEEZ!" he exclaimed and quickly turned and ran towards the small station towards the Niceland Apartment.

"I'LL SEE YOU LATER KID!" he shouted over his shoulder.

"YOU BETTER NOT FORGET OUR USUAL SUNDAY HANGOUT TOMORROW!" Vanellope shouted back.

"I WON'T! I ALWAYS MAKE IT DON'T I?! he replied.

As Vanellope smiled and waved goodbye, Ralph put the trinket in his hand into one of his shirt pockets, and climbed onto the little train. His feet dangling upward and sitting hunched in, the train slowly pulled out of the station into the dark tunnel ahead.

"Ralph," he said to himself, "you're one brave bad guy. Here goes nothing."

**A/N**: And time for a celebration for another chapter done! As for the next chapter...let's just say that this Valentine's Day there will be more fluff, character meetings, and a really awesome date that involves racing karts! See you next chapter!


	7. Chapter 6: The Date

**A/N**: Happy Valentine's Day to everyone! And as a treat, the next chapter in my story! This was the most monstrous, and glorious, chapter I have written so far. Reviews are always good, I can improve on my writing skills that way. Other than that, enjoy this big chapter!

**Disclaimer**: Wreck-It Ralph and the characters within them belong to Disney. My OC Characters and Games belong to me.

The Magical Bond Between Two Hearts

Chapter 6: The Date

"No this doesn't look right. Oh man!"

Lucy rubbed her chin with her fingers, trying to figure out what she had done wrong with the drawing she had in her hand. She glanced at Sophie, "What do you think?"

The bird gave no response, but somehow she could understand her just by looking at her.

"I know, I know. It's not as good as it looks." Lucy said giving a little giggle, "But I think it looks great."

She suddenly heard a lot of noise in the station. She turned to look, and realized that the arcade had been closed already for the past five minutes.

"Whoa, is it that time already?!" she exclaimed.

Quickly she put down her pencil and the pad of paper she had been working on, and stood up on the bench to survey the scene. Lucy could not contain her excitement, because she knew that today was the day. The day that she got to meet Ralph again. _I hope he gets here on time._

Looking down at her feet, she began to realize that the light from above her shining through the window started to sink down. Sophie started to chirp as well when the light started to fade. Slowly Lucy raised her hand to the light that was left, like she had done everyday for the last 9 years. Lucy didn't know why she had done this everyday, but the light of the sun that shone through the window made her feel...safe.

"Please come back tomorrow." she whispered softly.

Just as she said this, the light finally shone its last rays of light through the window, and was gone; replaced with the electric lights of the station. Lucy let out a sorrowed sigh, lowering her hand. She knew that there was no going back to the life she had back home. She knew that she couldn't get home at all.

_It was all gone_.

A strange sound made her lose her concentration. "What's that noise? It sounds like..._oh no!_"

As she strained her ears to listen, she heard the sound of giggling girls. Giggling fan girls.

Only meaning that Archer was here. She jumped down from the bench, tightened the cloak around her shoulders, and pulled down the hood tightly over her face. She knew that whenever Archer was around, there was always trouble ahead.

0 - 0 - 0 - 0

"Girls PLEASE! You flatter me too much! Just the way I like it." Archer gave his fan girls a wink.

As usual they swooned. _Huh, typical fan girls. _

"You are _so cool_ Archer." said one of the girls, a blonde-haired lass.

"Yeah, I would watch you anyday." chipped up an auburn-haired girl.

The girls then proceeded to talk all at once in admiration to him. This made Archer proud of himself, wooing girls like them. Of course, the girls were from his own game and were easily seduced by his charms.

Archer was just about to comment on what he called his amazing archery skills, when something caught his attention in the corner of his eye.

"Ladies, ladies." he interrupted them, "If you'll excuse me, I think I need to go have a _talk_ with a certain someone."

"AWW!" the ladies whined, "Can't you stay any longer?"

"Don't worry..._I'll be right back_." Archer replied in his irresistible voice. The ladies always love it.

The girls swooned again, and waved happily as he left them at the entrance to _Tapper's_.

Usually he would go shoot some rounds back in his game _Flying Arrows_ before returning to his fans. This time though, he had spotted someone he had seen last night. A certain bad guy who had almost broken his nose at the DDR party.

His confidence suddenly heightened, as he walked over to the certain bad guy with a smug grin growing on his face.

This time he was certain to have his revenge.

0 - 0 - 0 - 0

Out of breath, Ralph finally managed to walk into Game Central Station. The last few stretches he couldn't wait for the train to stop, so he tried to get out of his very small seat as fast as he could. It took a lot of his stamina and strength to get out, and usually he would take his time getting out. This time he was in a hurry, being almost late for his date.

"Made it!" he huffed heavily.

Ralph had stopped to catch his breath, leaning against the entrance to his game.

_"Well, at least Surge is not here to stop me at the gate this time. I must be lucky."_

At this exact moment, his thoughts were interrupted.

"Wreck-It Ralph."

He jumped expecting the Surge to be there. Instead, he got a good glimpse at a guy that he thought looked very familiar. He furrowed his brow in confusion.

"Um, have we met?" he asked the man.

The man then suddenly bursted out laughing, making Ralph jump again.

"Oh I'm sorry. We have met, but not formally." the man held out his had to him, "Archer from the game _Flying Arrows_."

"Ralph," he nervously replied taking his hand, "from the game _Fix-It Felix Jr._"

After shaking hands, he and Archer stared at each other for a minute.

"So...how do you know me?" he furrowed his brow again.

"You don't remember?" Archer implied. Ralph shook his head.

"We met at the DDR Party. Somehow you must have had a temper flare and almost broke my nose."

Now Ralph understood. The guy he saw before him was the one that was picking on Lucy that last night.

"Right, now I remember." Ralph recalled, "You were the guy that was being a somewhat showoff to everyone right?"

He saw the look on Archer's face turn into a scowl.

"Watch it big guy. I was just trying to warm up to you." Archer retorted.

Ralph felt his temper rising just by looking at him. However he was able to control it, for he didn't want to make a scene and get all beaten up before he met up with Lucy.

"Well, I would like to stay and _warm up_ to you as well. But I have somewhere that I need to be." he walked around the man, trying to control his anger over him, "So another time perhaps."

"Yes, I think that would be best." Archer called after him.

Without a second thought, Ralph hurried away to find Lucy.

0 - 0 - 0 - 0

Lucy gave a huge sigh of relief, seeing that Archer had not seen or noticed her at all. Now Lucy had gone back to try to draw in her pad of paper again, feeling a little more safer from him. Having pulled off the hood from her cloak, she was now transfixed on the difficult task before her. She was so concentrated in her work, that she didn't notice the big footsteps that came closer behind her.

"I still can't get this right. If only..."

Her thoughts were interrupted by a sudden tap on her shoulder.

"AHH!" she yelped. Lucy suddenly lost her balance, and fell to the floor.

"Sorry! Are you okay?"

Shaking off the sensation of hitting the floor so suddenly, Lucy looked up to see who was there that had said that. She gasped, a smile spreading across her lips. To her delight she saw that it was Ralph standing there with a worried look on his face.

"I'm fine. Just startled me is all." Lucy replied, giving him a warm smile.

Carefully she picked herself up from the floor, clutching the pad tightly, and stood to face Ralph directly. To her surprise she could see him more clearly than last night, when it was dark. Now in the bright, moving light, Ralph was a lot more taller than she thought he would be. Looking at his face she saw that it was more soft and warmer than before.

"You look...different from before." she implied happily.

She saw Ralph turn red for a moment. "Me? I haven't changed really at all. I'm still the same Ralph." he laughed nervously.

Lucy clutched the pad of paper tighter against her chest. For a moment the two of them stared at the floor with nothing to say.

_"I wonder...should I ask him?" _she found herself muttering to herself.

"Um...say. What do you have in your arms?" Ralph asked her pointing to the pad she was holding.

"Oh, this?" Lucy slowly held out the pad of paper for him to see, "I-It's my sketching pad. I use it to draw art." She felt herself blushing in embarrassment for telling him this, even though Ralph was the first person she felt comfortable in telling.

"You're an artist?" Ralph implied.

"Well...sort of." she sat down cautiously on one of the benches, "Do you want to sit down?"

She gestured to the seat next to her for Ralph to sit in.

"Sure...okay." Ralph cautiously plopped down in the seat next to her.

Looking away from him, she clutched the sketch pad even tighter to her chest. Her mind was racing around in circles, making her feel dizzy. It was only when she felt the pad pressing hardly against her did she realize that she was nervous.

"C-can I...a-ask you something?" she stuttered sloppily.

When she looked up again, he was looking at her expecting her to finish.

"May...may I?"

She then turned her eyes to what she was focused on: his big wrecking hands.

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Noticing that Lucy's attention was to his hands, Ralph turned to look at his hands as well.

"May I...use you..."

Ralph felt his blush darken.

"...I mean your _hands_!" she corrected quickly. "May I use your hands for a drawing?"

Ralph couldn't answer, he was too stunned and trying to contain the blood rushing to his cheeks.

"Y-yeah, sure." he stuttered.

She smiled, giving a warm chuckle. Then quite suddenly she took one of his big hands. This caught Ralph by surprise. _What is she doing? _

"Sorry if I startled you." she replied almost immediately, "I'm just studying your hands."

"What for?" he asked her.

Lucy remained quiet, still focusing her attention on his hands.

"Well I...tried to draw them before, from memory. But...for some reason it was much more difficult than I realized." she faintly smiled, "When I first saw your hands...I knew that they were different from the rest. I've seen other big hands before, but...they were not _human hands_. It made them easy to draw. But when I tried drawing your hands...it seemed like I was...unable to draw at all."

She slowly let go of his hand. Ralph's heart was beating so fast that he wasn't sure if he was still breathing. Carefully, Lucy placed the pad of paper in front of her. She took out what seemed to look like a writing utensil. _Called a pencil I think._ Flipping the pad open, Ralph noticed that her cheerful expression seemed to dramatically change. _"It's as if she's more serious now." _he thought.

"Now, um...just hold your hands still." she bashfully told him, "And don't move them, okay?"

He nodded his head without a word, his heart still pounding.

Then she began to draw. As she went on, her expression was now more serious than he had ever seen before. He almost thought that she was a different person than the girl he had met last night.

_I need to know her._ The thought was pounding in his mind like a hammer on a nail. _I need to know more._

"Lucy?"

Her eyes looked up at him, her expression never wavering. _Now's your chance!_

"Where...is it that you're from?" The words came out slowly as if time had stopped.

Her eyes returned to the pad, she was quiet. Ralph almost leaned forward to listen, but remembered that he had to keep still.

"_Shining Magic_. That's the game that I'm from." she responded keeping her eyes on the pad of paper, "_Shining Magic_ was my home before-"

She suddenly gasped, her big eyes widening.

"What? What's wrong?!" he asked worriedly

"Oops! I just made a mistake." she laughed happily.

She then flipped her pencil upside down, and scrubbed the paper with the pink stub at the end. He let out a silent sigh of relief. Her expression turned back to a concentrated one.

"-before I was exiled." she finished not flinching.

"Exiled?"

"Yeah. Nine years ago from yesterday I arrived here at Game Central...and I never left." She paused with her pencil stuck on the paper.

Ralph narrowed his eyes, "If you never left then...how come you go into other games?"

"Back in my game, if someone learns something new, defeats an enemy, or even explores a new place...we gain experience and grow." Her pencil moved gracefully across the paper again.

"Grow how? As in get powerful?" he asked.

"No." she bit her lip as her pencil pressed hardly against the paper, "We grow older. I was a kid when I came to the station. Now I've grown to what you see now, because I had explored other games."

"WAIT...you were a KID?!" Ralph mildly shouted. He didn't want to scare her with his big voice. He knew how loud his voice could get.

This time Lucy looked all the way up at his face. She was frowning at him, her eyes big and wide.

"Hold still, it's hard to draw a moving target." she told him sternly.

He realized then that he had moved his hands. _Oh man, you embarrassed yourself! You almost blew it stupid!_

"Sorry." he responded glumly. He put his hands back where they were.

"Hey it's okay." Lucy smiled, her frown completely gone, "It happens, don't worry yourself over it."

It was a long time before the both of them said a word. With one final movement of the pencil she held in her hand, she happily set down the pad of paper.

"Done!" she exclaimed, "You can move now."

He sighed as he moved his sore hands around from its stiff position. He felt a tug on his sleeve.

"You want to see it?" Lucy asked.

"Sure."

She extended the pad to him, the paper turned to him. At first he looked at it closely because he couldn't tell what he was looking at.

"Um...sorry the paper's upside down." Lucy responded and turned the pad right side up.

Ralph gasped.

"Oh my land!"

What he saw was a perfectly detailed drawing of his own hands.

0 - 0 - 0 - 0

From the way he sounded, she thought that something was definitely wrong with it.

"I know. Its bad isn't it?" she glumly muttered hiding behind the sketch pad.

"No. This is amazing!"

"What?" She poked her head from behind the pad.

She saw that Ralph was _smiling_. Not frowning, but _smiling_.

"This is really good!" he commented, "You're a really good artist."

"You...you think so?" she shyly replied.

Ralph put his hand upon the paper. That was when Lucy noticed for the first time that he had teeth, and he was _grinning_. But when she looked at his toothy grin, she couldn't help but smile at a missing tooth within his grin.

"You know," she put down the sketch pad, turning her head up to Ralph, "no one has ever said that my art was good before."

She suddenly felt something warm come up to her cheeks. _What is this? I've never felt this feeling before._ Curiosity struck her as she tried to figure out this new feeling.

"Lucy?"

She jerked her head up quickly realizing that she had drifted off in her thoughts. The curious feeling she had was still there, no matter how much she tried to shake it off.

"Would you...like to go somewhere with me?"

Lucy found herself gasping as Ralph extended a hand out to her.

She couldn't find the words, she couldn't find anything. The question rang through her mind like a gong and took ahold of her. She couldn't shake the curious feeling she had. _Where does he want to take me? To a game? Is it somewhere that I've been to before? _The curious questions nagged at her, making her indecisive of what to say.

"G-g-go somewhere? W-with you?" she stuttered.

"Yeah." he replied, "Well...s-since we're friends I thought...well I-I could take you to someplace you've never been to before. I-If you want to."

Lucy remained silent looking at his outstretched hand. She had never ever been asked by someone else to go someplace with her. It was unthinkable that someone would ever do that.

"Then again...perhaps it's time that I started to try. To try to trust others again."

She took his hand in one swift motion.

"You know...I've never really been to the game _Sugar Rush_ before. Maybe...we could go there first?" She found herself smiling up at him, holding his hand in hers.

As the two of them made their way across the station, Lucy couldn't help but feel very happy to be going with someone else. She held Ralph's hand tighter. _It was going to be a great day after all._

Just then they had reached the entrance into _Sugar Rush_. Peering closer, she realized that she could not see anything inside. It was a dark tunnel. And she remembered now that the dark scared her more than anything. She let go of Ralph's hand with her mind full of fear. He turned to her surprised of her sudden movement back.

"What's wrong? I thought you wanted to go to _Sugar Rush_." He took a step closer to her. Lucy shook her head furiously and step back from him.

"I can't. I...I just can't!" she sadly told him. The fear had now taken over her whole body, pushing her back away from the entrance all together.

"Why not?"

Lucy glumly looked down taking care not to let Ralph see her face. She knew even though that this was their second meeting, that Ralph worried about her being unhappy. But...she had to tell him why, it was a risk worth taking.

"I'm..._terrified_...of the dark." she slowly explained. For a moment she couldn't breathe, waiting for Ralph's reply. Instead there was silence, and when Lucy looked back up at him, she saw to her surprise that his hand was extended out to her once more.

"Then...let me help you." he replied in a warm voice that Lucy had never heard before. A whole new feeling she had never felt before had suddenly welled up inside her heart. Without even realizing it until it was too late, she sprinted to take not his hand, but his arm instead.

"Don't let go then, okay?" she faintly responded, her face pressed against the lower part of his big arm.

From out of the corner of her eye she saw Ralph smiling down at her, his cheeks having turned a bright red. "Don't worry, I'll make sure we get there in one piece."

Lucy grabbed on tighter to Ralph as they both made their first step into the tunnel that lead into _Sugar Rush_.

0 - 0 - 0 - 0

"Where are we going exactly?"

"To where Lucy and that ape of a wrecker is going Garren!" Archer quietly scolded.

They snuck past each of the characters that were on their usual business during closing hours at the arcade. And a big crowd it was that day. Garren who was following Archer's lead, feared that the obsession of revenge was starting to get to him.

"Archer, why can't we just go to _Tapper's_. I'm sure the fan girls would love to see you throw some more darts." he tried to convince Archer.

"NO! Something must be done about those two!" Archer scowled.

The two of them had been secretly spying on Lucy and Ralph for a long time, and Garren was really tired from sneaking around. The both of them had followed the two to the entrance to the go-kart game called _Sugar Rush_, where moments before they had entered the dark tunnel to the game.

"And _I'm_ going to be the one to do it!" Archer finished.

"I've got a bad feeling about this."

Garren muttered worriedly.

Reluctantly Garren followed his archery hero into the tunnel.

0 - 0 - 0 - 0

Lucy held her breath the whole time through the dark tunnel. Her eyes were squeezed shut, thinking that it would keep out the fear of getting lost. She clutched Ralph's arm so tightly that she almost thought she would hurt him. Instead Ralph had let her hold him tightly, and told her that he would not let go of her even for a moment.

"Ralph...you're so nice to me. I just hope we make it through in one piece."

It felt like hours went by when a light pierced through her shut eyes. Curious, she opened one eye slightly.

"There's the end." she heard Ralph saying.

Cautiously Lucy opened up the one eye a little more. Sure enough, there was a light that lay just ahead of them. She sighed in relief, having made it through. Her arms loosened on Ralph's arm as they made their last few steps out of the tunnel into the open.

"Welcome to _Sugar Rush_." Ralph said in a booming voice.

Shielding her eyes from the sudden bright light, she beheld before her a massive landscape that stretched out as far as she could see. "_This is...candy! The landscape is covered in candy! Everywhere I look there are treats and sugary things." _

"This place...it's...it's so amazing!" she felt herself choking on the words. That was when she realized she was almost crying.

"Are you...okay? You have tears in your eyes." Ralph was now looking down at her.

Realizing he noticed her in tears, she quickly let go of his arm and rubbed the tears away from her cheeks.

"I'm okay." she replied smiling, "It's just...so beautiful here."

"Well come on, let's go down to the race track!" Ralph raced down the long bridge leading down to a path that lead on through what looked like a candy-cane forest to the race track beyond. Lucy wanted to follow him, but hesitated to move down the steep bridge. _"A race track? From what I've heard of this place, there must be go-karts. And not only just karts, but __**candy go-karts**__!"_

Now more than anything did she want to go down to the race track. She wanted to see the karts, maybe even _race_ in them! Without realizing it she ran down the bridge so fast that her cloak had come undone and flown off of her. At the end she ran right into Ralph knocking her down from her feet, taken completely by surprise. Looking up at Ralph she saw that he was taken by surprise as well. The both of them laughed aloud at what had just transpired.

With the help from Ralph, Lucy managed to get onto her feet again after her stumble.

"Whoa!" Ralph gaped in awe.

"What?" she asked confused.

It was after Ralph pointed out her missing cloak did she realize that the cloak had fallen off of her. What Ralph saw was that without the cloak, he saw her in a short, long strapped golden dress that she had made herself with the materials from her home.

The materials she used to make the dress were of magical properties that she had forgotten the names of. The only material name that she could remember that was used for the dress was Fauridian. She did not know what it meant, but as she was standing in front of Ralph, she could not help but feel embarrassed for him to see her like this.

"My cloak!" she shouted having found the right words.

"It flew away as you ran down the bridge." Ralph replied, "But...I, well...I kind of like you without it." he turned away from her, but she caught him turning red again. She still couldn't figure out why, but she knew it meant something.

Lucy extended her hand to Ralph as he turned to look at her again.

"Come on! Let's go to the race track!" she said cheerfully.

A smile came back across his face, taking Lucy's hand in his. Excited Lucy pulled Ralph by the hand (but to only move him a little until his feet kicked in) along across the pathway that lead into the candy trees ahead, heading towards the _Sugar Rush _racetrack. For the first time in her life, Lucy could not wait to see what adventures she and Ralph were going to have that day. And she knew without even talking to him, Ralph felt the same way.

**A/N**: What adventures await them? Find out next chapter! See you then!


End file.
